BRIDGEPORT >> When the season started, sophomore All-Americans and Naismith Award finalists Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson had no idea what the UConn program record was for combined points by a pair of teammates. It certainly wasn’t not on their to-do list when the first official practice was held back in October.

Yet, in the first half of Monday night’s Elite 8 game against Oregon, the duo went somewhere no other pair of UConn teammates have gone before breaking the record set by Maya Moore and Tina Charles during the 2009-10 season.

“It is fun,” Samuelson said. “I think a lot of it is just the situation we are in. We lost probably the three greatest three players to play together in women’s basketball (when Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck graduated) off of one team. It just happened to be both of our freshman years, so this year we had to step up and be that go-to person for our team a lot of times. Both us have really embraced that role, I think our games complement each other well. If teams try to focus on the perimeter game, we can go inside. If teams try to focus on the inside game, teams can go to me on the outside. I think that is one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to do this. If we were both guards or both posts, I don’t think we’d be able to be that dynamic of a scoring duo.”

The consistency has been the most impressive aspect of the march to the record. Collier and Samuelson each had only one game when they failed to score in double figures.

Colier has scored in double figures 20 times which was tied for the third best total in the last 20 years. Samuelson has nine games with at least 25 points and only Moore and Nykesha Sales have more since the 1997-98 season.

“I think the most important thing on the team is you know what you are going to get from (the players),” Collier said.

“I think our team does a really good job of getting the ball to where people want the ball. We’ve had the opportunity to be in this position this year and I think really grabbed it, do it for our team, stay consistent and do what we needed them to do.”

Collier will head into the Final Four with 743 points this season, the fourth most in UConn history while Samuelson is sixth with 732 points.